Birthright

new slingback looked tastier than his rawhide bone—and had just finished arguing with the plumber for twenty minutes as he seemed to believe she could wait until later in the week to have her toilet fixed.
    Ty had managed to smear peanut butter all over himself, the dog and the kitchen floor and drown several Star Wars villains in the toilet, hence the call to the plumber. And it wasn’t yet nine o’clock.
    She wanted a quiet cup of coffee, her pretty new shoes and an organized office outside the home.
    It was partly her own fault, of course. She’d been the one to decide there was no point in shuffling Ty off to a baby-sitter while she was working at home. She’d been the one to be generous and understanding when her assistant had requested a week off to go visit her daughter in Columbus.
    She’d been the one to decide she could do it all.
    Now her little boy was upstairs sulking because she’d shouted at him. Her dog was afraid of her for the same reason. The plumber was mad at her—and everyone knew what that meant—and she’d managed to do nothing positive except turn on her computer.
    She was a failure as a mother, as a professional woman, as as dog owner. Her foot hurt and she had no one to blame but herself.
    When her phone rang, she considered, seriously, just covering her head with her arms. If anyone thought she was capable of solving their problems, they were going to be bitterly disillusioned.
    But she took a deep breath, picked up the receiver.
    “Good morning. Lana Campbell.”
    D oug knocked, then decided it was doubtful anyone could hear him over the noise rolling out of Lana’s house. Cautious, he opened the door, poked his head in.
    The dog was barking like a maniac, the phone wasringing, something blasted on the living room TV and Tyler was wailing.
    He could hear Lana’s frustrated and close-to-strident voice trying to cut through the din.
    “Tyler Mark Campbell, I want you to stop this minute.”
    “I wanna go to Brock’s house. I don’t like you anymore. I wanna live with Brock.”
    “You can’t go to Brock’s house because I don’t have time to take you. And I don’t like you very much right now either, but you’re stuck with me. Now go up to your room and don’t come out again until you can behave like a civilized human being. And turn off that television!”
    Doug nearly stepped back outside again. From the sound of it, nobody was going to notice if he hightailed it back to his car and drove off in a cloud of cowardly dust.
    None of his business, he reminded himself. Life had enough complications and conflict without voluntarily asking for more.
    “You’re mean to me.” Tyler sobbed it, his voice rising and inciting the dog to join in with a long, high howl. “If I had a daddy he wouldn’t be mean to me. I want my daddy instead of you.”
    “Oh, Ty. I want your daddy, too.”
    He supposed that was it—the child’s pitiful sob, the absolute misery in Lana’s voice, that pushed him in the door instead of out again.
    Still, he opted for denial first with a big, easy smile and a cheerful tone of voice. “Hey, what’s all this?”
    She turned. He’d never seen her look less than perfectly groomed, he realized. Even after they made love she somehow managed to look perfect.
    Now her hair was standing in tufts, her eyes were damp and a little wild. Her feet were bare, and there was a coffee stain splattered over the front of the WORLD ’ S BEST MOM T-shirt she wore.
    Embarrassed color flooded her cheeks even as she lifted her hands in a helpless gesture.
    He’d been attracted to the stylish, organized attorney.Seduced by the warm, confident woman. Intrigued by the widowed single mother who seemed to effortlessly juggle all the balls in the air.
    And to his utter astonishment, he fell in love with the messy, frustrated, unhappy woman with toys scattered at her feet.
    “Sorry.” She forced what she hoped resembled a smile on her face. “We’re in bedlam at the moment. I don’t think this is a good time to—”
    “She yelled at us.” Seeking sympathy, Ty flung himself at Doug, wrapped his arms around Doug’s legs. “She said we were bad.”
    Doug hauled Ty up. “Asked for it, didn’t you?”
    Ty’s lip quivered. He shook his head, then buried his face against Doug’s shoulder. “She spanked my butt.”
    “Tyler.” Lana supposed that had the floor opened up to swallow her, she’d just have been battered to death by the toys that fell in with